The Lake Forest College men's lacrosse team traveled just across the state line to take on Carthage College on Saturday and returned home with a 13-11 victory.

Four different Foresters scored before the home team was able to get on the scoreboard. Sophomore midfielder Aidan Wigton netted the team's first goal of the season just 55 seconds into the contest and sophomore attacker John Shannon, junior midfielder Macklin Thomas, and junior defenseman Liam Bradley added to the lead over the next 10 minutes. Wigton answered Carthage's first goal of the contest with his second and Lake Forest led 5-1 after the first quarter.

Shannon tied for the team lead with four man-up goals a season ago and scored his first of 2026 just 61 seconds into the second. He struck again, as did Thomas, later in the period and the Forester lead at halftime was 8-3.

Senior attacker added his name in the scoring column to open the second half, giving the visitors a six-goal lead.

The Firebirds defeated the Foresters each of the last four seasons and threatened to extend that streak on Saturday with with five consecutive goals that cut the Lake Forest lead to just one at 9-8 with 11:50 to play in the contest.

Shannon's career-high fourth goal of the day ended that run and the third and fourth of the game for Thomas made the score 12-8. Carthage closed to within two but Shannon hit the net for the fifth time to make it a more comfortable three-goal game with just 1:41 remaining. The Firebirds' final goal came with a minute left and the Foresters hung on for the win.

Lake Forest senior face-off specialists John O'Reilly and Gabe Boston led all players in the contest with seven and five ground balls, respectively, and they combined to win 19 of 27 face-offs.

The season-opening win for the Foresters evened Carthage's record at 1-1.

Lake Forest will open Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play at Edgewood University next Saturday at 1:00 p.m.